A free four-part video series has been created by the non-profit Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising, Michigan on the third annual "Cowboys and Angels" concert that benefited the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, South Dakota – the world's oldest Native American domestic violence shelter...WBCWS battles domestic violence, sexual assault and an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Lakota Rosebud Sioux Reservation...A wide variety of social problems are among the causes for the Rosebud suicides and family violence including poverty, depression, no jobs, and substance abuse Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard performed original songs and seasonal music during the free concert on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore in Munising, Michigan.

by Evelyn Pringle - Dissident Voice

For years, the research that showed SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) were dangerous and practically useless was kept hidden, while the studies published and presented to potential prescribers painted a glowing picture of success. These days, a person would be hard pressed to find someone who does not have a family member or friend labeled mentally ill and taking drugs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro and Celexa, or their chemical cousins Effexor, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin.

...[George W.] Bush praised Teen Challenge for its practices, saying that while inside, "if you don't work, you don't eat." That's right: the program uses unpaid, forced labor backed by the threat of food deprivation as "addiction treatment"...Further..."Addiction is a sin, not a disease." Consequently, the program does not allow the use of medication...Beyond this, it humiliates and attempts to "break down" people with addictions, using techniques...that are known to do more harm than good.

By ROGER BURBACH - Counterpunch

Evo Morales is the latest democratically-elected Latin American president to be the target of a US plot to destabilize and overthrow his government...[T]he Bolivia coup attempt was a conscious policy rooted in US hostility towards Morales, his political party the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and the social movements that are aligned with him.

By Katie Mercer - Friday, October 24, 2008

Canadian indie rockers Bedouin Soundclash weren't able to play a free concert at a barbecue outside Insite after city officials had the stage taken down, citing bylaw infractions..."Because there was no permit, the city came down with crews and hundreds of police officers to shut us down," said volunteer Chris Livingstone.

Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine is an important and accessible book--not heavy on academic jargon, but rather lively and engaging, like a true detective novel--with a broad appeal to those interested in the medical potential of cannabis, an end to the drug war and grass roots activism. I asked the co-authors how working on the book changed them[:]

Links to stories and video by Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, SD on the tragic suicide epidemic involving Lakota youth and young adults

By JAMES RISEN - New York Times

When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly impounded the truck and notified his boss...Before long, the commander...received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs...He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck...[A]llegations that [Ahmed Wali Karzai] has benefited from narcotics trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan.

By Pamela Constable - Washington Post Foreign Service

While Taliban insurgents stage increasing attacks in the Afghan countryside, equally fast-expanding violent crime -- kidnappings, carjackings, drug-related killings and highway robberies -- is plaguing the capital of 5 million and the vital truck and bus routes that connect the country's major cities. It is making some Afghans nostalgic for the low-crime days before 2001, when the Taliban sternly ruled most of the country.

In Wabseemoong First Nation (near Kenora), youth have established a road block to the community, searching vehicles for drugs. Leader Henry Fisher Jr. said Monday: "We want a change in our community, as we do not want to have any more youth harmed by these addictive substances".

By SHARON SMITH - September 11, 2008

The drug-running warlords who have controlled Afghanistan with the U.S.' blessing since 2001 have no interest in either democracy or women’s rights. Indeed, it is not uncommon for poor poppy farmers who cannot repay loans to local warlords to offer up their daughters for marriage instead. Gang rapes and violence against women are on the rise, according to human rights organizations.

By FRED GARDNER - September 6/7, 2008

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden was responsible for the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines passed in 1986. “The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 had forced judges to harshly sentence within a narrow range,”...“So Biden knew in '86 that mandatory sentences were not needed... But he pushed for and passed mandatory sentencing anyway, because that’s what the narcs and prosecutors wanted. He held hearings at which they got opportunity to testify while opponents of mandatory minimums were kept out.”

by Noel K. Gallagher | Portland Press Herald

PORTLAND, Maine - Oakhurst Dairy owner Stanley Bennett welcomed the news that Monsanto was divesting itself of its controversial dairy hormone business, after taking on the agribusiness giant in an expensive David-and-Goliath legal battle five years ago.

by Dan Glaister | The Guardian UK

Facing five charges of distributing illegal drugs, [Charles Lynch, the proprietor of Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers] was found guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom of selling 100kg (220lb) of marijuana. He faces between five and 85 years in prison; his lawyers intend to appeal.

by GRAEME SMITH - August 5, 2008

Afghanistan's flourishing opium trade has ranked among the most contentious issues between the Kabul government and its backers in recent years, but the disagreements have rarely surfaced in public.